We meet our adventurers shortly after their victorious fight with the guards in the prison. They prepare to interrogate the two incapacitated and jailed guards, Samros and Jerreth, and release Burlap from his cell. Burlap is not doing well, and Drubb heals him a small amount in order to stabilize his injuries.
Samros awakes to find Spiphy in his cell making threats, while Drubb, Althea, B, and Burlap demand to know what Tom’s plan was. Jerreth screams at Sam to not say anything, “the master will know!”, but Sam begins to speak as he is overcome with fear and frustration.
However, few words leave his lips before a necklace around his neck bursts and spinning daggers appear in midair to stab into him and Spiphy. Samros is instantly killed, and Spiphy is mildly injured by the magical attack. Jerreth seems to lose what little control he had, and begins cackling and refuses to answer any further questions.
The party learns more from Burlap about the mayor. They discover that the mayor had a wife and a child, but nearly fifteen years ago, his wife died. She had become increasingly cloistered, and Burlap reveals a secret that few knew: she had been exploring magic, and Burlap assumed that it was one of her forbidden experiments that backfired.
He revealed that she was often locked into her study, the one room the party had yet to explore, and Burlap told them where he had hidden the key. He also mentioned that the mayor’s son, Liam, had not been seen since the murder, and hoped that he was safe somewhere.
The party then turned to ask Ned about what he had seen the night of the murder. Ned revealed that he had been drinking out near his farm when he saw a “tall, black ghost” making its way to the town. Terrified but curious, he followed the smoky figure to the mansion, where the creature floated through the walls carrying a dagger. Ned claimed he tried to go into the mansion to help, but the door was locked, and a moment later Tom had grabbed him and carried him off to the jail.
The party decided to make their way back to the town and try to explore the locked room. On the way back to town, they encountered two strangers on the road: a dragonborn monk named Vyranys, and a tall regal woman named Rift. The two were surrounded by wargs, a strange sort of creature to find in the woods, and the party helped fight off the wolflike creatures before returning to town together.
There they made their way to the mansion, discovered the key, unlocked and then entered the study. At first it seemed a normal (albeit dusty) room, but after Spiphy cast detect magic, they discovered a bookcase hid a secret passageway down into a basement.
After Spiphy tripped and fell down the stairs, the party gathered in the room to take stock of their new environment. They found sacrificial knives, blood stained floors, cages, a map, and a tome of seemingly dark magic written in a language no one could read.
As they digested this information, Spiphy’s magical detection began to indicate something coming their way through the walls of the basement. Moments later, a smoky figure with a face of black flame came through the wall, surprising the party.
We end the chapter with the party in grave danger in a tiny basement of murder and mystery…